#11 - JRL 7189
pravda.ru
May 20, 2003Is It a New Idea that Putin Suggests to Russia?

Russia President suggests reviving of a historic tradition of sacrificing
everything for the sake of unity and strength of the country. The elite is not
ready for the sacrifice

People were right when they said that Putin's State of the Nation speech
voiced last Friday was addressed to the electorate, not people sitting in the
Marble Hall of the Kremlin. The State of the Nation speech was emasculated to
the utmost, contained minimum of criticism and maximum of thesis according to
which the country must catch up with the USA and leave it behind in the nearest
ten years. This is certainly to be done under the guidance of Vladimir Putin,
not otherwise.

Vladimir Putin is looking ahead, but the political elite of the country, at
least some part of it, is blind to this remote prospective. Parliamentary
elections are to be held in the country this year; outcome of the elections can
hardly be predicted now. So, as soon as the presidential speech was over,
deputies immediately plunged into criticism (those were the rightist and the
leftist forces) and admiration (the centrist forces) of the State of the Nation
speech.

As the following comments of Russian parliamentarians reveal, majority of
them still hear what they like to hear, even in the presidential speech. As
Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky says, the days of the government headed by
Mikhail Kasyanov are numbered. Duma Vice-speaker Irina Khakamada responded to
Putin's criticism of the Duma's legislative activity and said that the President
should better focus on his team that develops poor laws. First Vice Chair of the
Russian State Duma, Lyubov Sliska said that the president's plans concerning
formation of an effective government as based on the parliamentary majority
referred to the United Russia party.

As for the leftist forces, Vasily Shandybin was the most ardent critic of the
presidential speech. Right after Vladimir Putin's words, Vasily Shandybin cried
out that "only thieves will be sitting in the State Duma of a new
convocation." And this criticism arose despite of the fact that Vladimir
Putin was rather cautious with making annoying conclusions and generalization;
the President didn't mention exact names of governmental officials in his
speech. That was probably the main reason why some critics of the presidential
speech mentioned no particular names.

Although consolidation of the society was the corner-stone of the president's
State of the Nation speech, it is unlikely that the appeal will make for
consolidation of the elite. There is a deep gap between the people and the
elite; that is why the presidential appeal for consolidation may become
absolutely vain.

It is highly likely that the population of Russia will prove to be not ready
to once again "sacrifice everything" for the sake of illusive strength
of the country and for "GDP doubling" (the objective which is not
clear for the people as well). The situation is actually very serious if it
turns out that everything mentioned in the President's State of the Nation
speech was a mere pre-election campaign launched with a view to bring
indifferent people to election centers and vote for the party of "selfish
and incompetent" bureaucracy.

In general, as the text of the presidential speech and all comments on it
reveal, it is necessary to replace the old political elites. The problem is that
the present-day elites are very much estranged from the people and cannot
understand their problems. If the situation remains the same, it may become the
main obstacle for consolidation of the society.